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08/10/1998-CC-Minutes-Work SessionMINUTES: City Council Workshop August 10, 1998 PRESENT: Mayor Tommy Kincaid, CouncumanJenkins, Councilman Ervin, Councilwoman Madden, Councilman James, Councilman McNeill OTHERS PRESENT: City Administrator Jack Smith, City Secretary Rosalie Chavez, Electric Superintendent Jeff Morris, Water/Wastewater Superintendent Eddie Branum, Butch Langley, Woodrow Barton 1. Mayor Tommy Kincaid called meeting to order. 2. Discuss Budget. Mr. Smith indicated each Council Member had a booklet containing each Department Head's request, and had a loose copy that was his recommendation. Discussion as Council reviewed the information. Mr. Smith indicated the budget he had worked up did not include the loss from the convenience center. Mr. Smith explained the police budget, and indicated there would be testing for the position of Sergeant, and Lieutenant. Discussion on Dire Marshall position, and Bob Hageman. Mr. Smith indicated City Attorney fee's have doubled, and the Municipal Court Judge's salary has doubled as his work load, and responsibilities had doubled. Discussion about Attorney fees. Mr. Smith indicated that for two hundred dollars a month, split between the water and electric department, the City could have an answering service trained in this area, answer calls, and contact the person needed to take care of any after hour calls. Councilman Jenkins asked if it was in the budget to pay the third party that will be taking care of the convenience center. Mr. Smith pointed it out to him in the booklet. Discussion on trash pick up, landfill, and convenience center. Councilman James indicated that he disagreed with giving a flat seven percent increase. He indicated that each department head should be given an amount of dollars to distribute among their people, perhaps a merit increase based on performance. Mr. Smith indicated he agreed with Councilman James, but that if each department head was doing their job, then each employee would be doing their job based on what their job was. Councilman James indicated the City needs to be run as a business. Discussion. Councilman Jenkins indicated a City should not be run like a business. Cities and businesses are run differently. He indicated Mr. Smith should take the Department head's recommendation and be the independent administrator. PAGE 2 Councilman James indicated there should be an incentive to keep employees. Councilman Jenkins indicated that Sanger has, in the past, always hired at the lowest possible amount. He indicated there was no incentive for people to do their jobs well, people were being hired out from under them. He indicated it was time the City paid the people for the job they did, and paid them well enough to keep them from going to other cities and companies. Councilman James indicated the city's employees were the most valuable asset in the community. Discussion on Electric Department personnel and difference in pay scale. Discussion on Administrative Personnel and difference in pay scale. Councilman James addressed Jeff Morris, and asked about his step plan. He indicated his step plan did not match what his people were making. Jeff Morris indicated the Council did not go with his step plan last year, they went with a cross the board raise. Councilman Jenkins indicated Mr. Morris, when he hired a secretary, had stated it would free up his time and allow him to spend more time in the field, and he would not need to hire another lineman. Councilman Jenkins indicated that Mr. Morris had hired a secretary and now was asking to hire another lineman. Mr. Morris indicated they did not hire a lineman because they could not find qualified people, the reason for hiring a lineman at this time is the growth they were experiencing. Mayor Kincaid indicated they would bring a few department heads in at a time, and discuss the budget for those departments. He indicated they would set up another work shop and meet with a few more department heads. Council discussed when to schedule the next workshop. It was scheduled after the next Council meeting. Councilman Jenkins indicated he would like to see more of the city staff at the meetings. Councilman James asked about the deadlines for posting the tax increase. Discussion on tax increase, and what the appraisal district was needing. City Secretary explained the adoption of the tax rate. Councilman McNeill indicated the tax rate had to go up this year, he indicated that it had not gone up in the past three years. Discussion on tax rate. Discussion on scheduling public hearing. Mayor Kincaid indicated they should pick a couple of alternates for each board to eliminate not having a quorum at the meetings. Councilman James indicated he would like a time table or chart showing the deadlines for adoption of the tax rate and budget. City Secretary indicated she would provide a time table. PAGE 3 Discussion on municipal court and the amount of revenue brought in from it. City Administrator indicated the department heads were doing real well keeping with their budgets. Discussion about the trailer used to an the back hoe and other supplies. Discussion about purchasing new trucks. Mr. Smith indicated $30,000 was in the budget to rejuvenate the lift station. Councilman James asked Jeff about the bucket truck. He indicated it was in the budget for a new one. Councilman James asked if he was planning to retire the old truck. Jeff Morris indicated they would use both trucks. Mayor Kincaid indicated people had noticed a difference in the water. He asked if there was a way to filter in a softener. Eddie Branum indicated it was a possibility, but the expense would be an issue. He indicated he would check into it, but also indicated with a little more time he felt he could get the mixture right. Discussion on going off of water rationing. Councilman Jenkins asked Jeff Morris about poles rotting, he asked where these poles were located. Jeff Morris indicated the last pole that fell was located on Cherry and 2nd Street. He indicated that most of the older poles that were set were starting to decay. Mayor Kincaid indicated it was in the mid 60's when Brazos had taken over and set most of these poles. Jeff Morris indicated that most poles lasted about 30 years, and there were a few that needed to be replaced. Councilman James asked about Mr. Kessler's five year plan for street repair. Mayor Kincaid indicated it was a plan to do one -quarter of the repair each year. Discussion on street maintenance. Councilman Jenkins indicated they need the citizen's input on the street maintenance issue. He indicated they needed to have a public hearing and discuss a bond package. Discussion on street, water, and sewer maintenance costs. Mayor Kincaid indicated they had covered everything they were going to cover in this workshop, and indicated they would begin again after the next Council meeting. Discussion. 3. Meeting Adjourned. � �.- ATTEST: Tommy K ncaid, Mayor Rosalie Chavez, City Sec etary